Ok, so no gun registration.

Ok, I will give on gun registration, given certain rules:

1. A national standard is set (that can be increased by the states should they so wish) on the amount of education that is required to own a gun. Not HS or college, but gun safety/proficiency classes. Depending on the type of gun and the way you choose to use it determines what type of education you need. I.E. : One class for long gun at home/target, another for hand gun with a carry permit.
2. All sales of guns are to be done through licensed gun dealers. The dealers are required to perform the necessary background checks and keep accurate files. The nature and depth of the check to be established by federal and state law and the nature of the type of gun being purchased. Should a private citizen choose to sell their guns they MUST do it through a gun dealer. Failure to do so results in a penalty.
   My argument for gun registration is to try and keep guns away from felons - if private citizens are not allowed to sell without the aid of a gun dealer to run the necessary background check then that is good enough for me.
3. There should also be some sort of central database that gun dealers have access to. The police can list guns they have recovered from crime scenes and gun dealers, should they see a gun they have sold can contact the police with any relevant information, without having to wait for a warrant to be issued. This way should a violent crime be committed with a gun and the gun is recovered, but not the criminal, maybe the gun dealer can speed up the time it takes to capture the criminal by identifying the gun owner. If the gun owner is not the criminal, maybe they know who took the gun. This is JUST a database of guns recovered at crime scenes.
4. In the case of felons or citizens who sell guns without using a gun dealer to provide a background check the range of penalties, in regards to their ability to own guns is based on the type of crime. Violent crime committed with a gun - then you loose the right to own guns, forever. Other felons can petition to get the right to own a gun. White collar/very non violent felons do not loose the right to own guns. Sell a gun illegally then your guns may have to be registered. Sell to a person the seller reasonably believed/should have know to be a felon then they are liable in some way for any crime committed with that gun. Please note these are just ideas for the penalties.
   

Why the change. Well I thought about it and Paul Hackett is correct owning a gun like many other hot topic issues such as gay marriage, medical marijuana, abortion, assisted suicide, etc are ultimate issues of privacy. What I do at home is my / my doctors business. Not the governments.

Also I was reading an article about privacy. Politically motivated attempts to gain access to patient medical records have increased during the Bush administration. Over the past few years state attorneys general and the Department of Justice have tried to subpoena patient medical records, asserting that federal law does not recognize the doctor-patient privilege, and that individuals no longer have a reasonable expectation of medical privacy. Given this, and what you recently sent me about attempts to take away the priest-confessional relationship, well, privacy is far too important to let it be taken away. Today's hearings on the illegal wiretappings may well prove to be very important to the future of this country.